By Charlie Beal
I always thought my first time sitting at the lawyers table in a courtroom would be much different. You see, I wasn’t exactly the model high-schooler. I wasn’t a terrible kid, but like many teenagers these days, I got caught up in the excitement (and stupidity) of underage drinking, partying, and basically doing a bunch of stuff I shouldn’t have. I’m sure I did a few illegal things back in the day, so I always thought my first time in court would be a terrible and humbling experience, filled with tears and remorse.
Although, I didn’t have it totally correct, my first time in a courtroom was, in fact, a terribly humbling experience. Today, surrounded by family (a handful of our many supportive prayer warriors), my wife, daughter, son and I sat and listened as a judge declared that Jeremiah is ours for all intensive purposes, “as if born to us.” The tears of remorse I thought I’d cry were replaced with joyful slowly moving ones as the judge spoke.
With Jeremiah sitting on my lap, happily playing with Lightning McQueen and Francesco Bernoulli, I listened to the judge use words like, “authority”, “judgment”, and “decree.” These words are common in a courtroom and while they might not bring to mind anything significant to others, they definitely caught my attention.
Those words spoken by the judge reminded me of our Heavenly Father. How we are adopted through the brutal death of Jesus…how we can live in hope and love…and how one day we will stand in front of God on our day of judgment.
You see, from the Mt. Everest of paperwork…to the incredible financial cost…to the excruciating waiting period, the entire adoption process was tough and at times seemed like there would be no end. But there was an end…a glorious end! Today was a day of celebration, but one thing stuck out to me…we didn’t have to die for Jeremiah to bring him into our family. All the work, time, and money spent on bringing Jeremiah home by far pales in comparison to what Jesus did to bring us into His family. Our Savior lived a perfect life, was brutally beaten, and paid the ultimate price, so we could be adopted into the family of Christ.
Today, we stood in front of the judge without fear, knowing we had done everything right to bring Jeremiah home and into our family. One day we’ll stand before God and Jesus will be right beside us knowing He did everything right to bring us home and into His family.
Life throws us all kinds of curveballs; full of discouragement, sin, and pain, but because of Jesus, there too will be a glorious end.
Humbled by His love, grace, sacrifice and forgiveness, I thank Jesus for today…for using Jeremiah to remind me of my own adoption and how I’m forever His.
